Off The Grid
In the privacy of the bedroom, Greg and Spike had a serious heart-to-heart. The Boss insisted he try his best to get some rest, "There's not much we can do now. It won't help Winnie if you exhaust yourself to death before we could find her." Spike knew deep down it made sense to rest and recuperate so he agreed to try. How the Boss thought he could manage it was beyond him but he wasn't going to argue.
Greg left him, and met with T1 + 1. "There's nothing we can do staying here but be a nuisance. We've got three days break, let's see what information we can gather. And hope we don't get called in to cover for any teams."
"Boss, we can't leave him here." It was Jules. It made sense after what just happened so they agreed on a rotating roster.
Sam and Jules would be on first watch; to be replaced later by Raf and Billy, then Sarge and Dean. The following day being a Saturday, Ed would cover with Clark. And, they would repeat the cycle. Their friend's need for close protection from himself came first ahead of any other commitments.
Sam asked if anyone had told Wordy yet, it soon became obvious that the honourary member of T1 was left out, Sam sent a text message. Wordy called back and offered to keep watch Saturday afternoon with his daughter Ally. They would repeat the roster as required.
Everyone but Sam and Jules left. They made themselves comfortable knowing Spike was resting if not asleep. Six hours into their watch Jules "had a feeling." Gingerly, she opened the bedroom door half an inch, enough to peep in. The bed was unoccupied, it hadn't been slept in.
"Sam, get your ass in here."
The blond ex-Special Forces guy didn't need any more prodding, he knew the pitch of that voice. This isn't good.
"Shit." He went to the open window where the rope was still hanging. Spike left it there after he fast roped down. Jules called Sarge to report in, "Spike has bolted!" The Techie's car was still in the apartment's allocated car park. A GPS trace on his phone, with assistance from Troy's T4, confirmed what they already knew, Spike was off the grid.
T1 + 1 + 1 gathered at Wordy's house to discuss what to do next. Everyone was sombre but not worried, they trusted Spike; the Spike they knew well. When Wordy heard the story from beginning to end for the first time, he said, "If he doesn't want to be found, we won't find him."
"I have a theory." Again, it was Jules, "I think he's off the grid because our hands are tied behind our backs. The Law and all... you know, protocol this, protocol that! He thinks he'd be able to find her quicker if he didn't have anyone stopping him every which way he turns." Yeah, they silently agreed, sometimes the LAW can be an ass.
Spike contacted Luca, a super geek not unlike him whose job it was to oversee road traffic authority in Toronto. They arranged a rendezvous at a designated CSIS safehouse. He couldn't trust anyone at the moment except his Team at SRU and a bunch of other friendly computer nerds, member of Geeks United. He showed Luca the traffic camera recording of the attempted kidnapping of Winnie the day before.
After viewing it, Luca got up, ask Spike to follow, "Come with me." They went to the Roads Authority nerve centre, and reviewed footages of that specific street corner. Luca used a software that matched types of vehicles and registration numbers. He was looking for one that had parked in the immediate vicinity of that street corner. They pinged at least 20 hits on the same van over a five month period.
"I think Winnie has a stalker," Luca surmised.
That was the only conclusion they could arrived at; and, whoever he was knew about the traffic camera or at least smart enough to cover his tracks. In the 20 instances the van was pinged, the plate number was obscured by an object. A paper bag. A towel. Even newspaper. Clever bastard, Spike thought.
Luca asked, "Does Winnie have a laptop? I'm not a profiler but I watch a lot of 'Criminal Minds' maybe he's sent Winnie stuff."
Spike had the same idea, he knew where Winnie kept her laptop. He just needed to be sure his Team was no longer on stag at his apartment. "Yeah, she does. I'll go look into that."
"You said you gave Winnie a tracking bracelet?"
"I did. No signal," he said in a whisper, feeling the weight of his despair. "This means she's in a basement or maybe out of range of the tracking device, or…," he didn't allow himself to linger on that thought. If he did, he wouldn't wake up from this nightmare.
He thanked Luca, "This didn't happen ok. Until I know more, please don't tell anyone."
"You got it, buddy. Anytime."
"I owe you. You've saved my ass twice now."
"Hey, if not for you, I wouldn't be standing here right now. Just remember, anytime."
Spike left the building in a hurry and headed back to his apartment. He recced it. All clear. He went in, found Winnie's laptop, and sure enough the camera was on. Someone, somewhere was tracking Winnie,Who?
Spike disabled the camera and loaded Winnie's emails into his secure CSIS issued computer. He drew the curtain closed and worked in the dark. It didn't take long and much digging, he found what he was looking for. His first good lead. He would follow his nose until it led to Win.
Winnie woke up in an unfamiliar room. Where am I? She didn't know how she got there and how long she had been in this strange surrounding.
The room was huge and it stunk of rust and oil and other nauseating olfactory smell. A basement? An attic? She couldn't tell. There were no windows but there was a small vent about 12 feet above the ground to oxygenate the room. It was adequately furnished although mainly we old, basic furniture. She made a mental inventory: a single bed, a dresser, a table and chair, a radio, a television and a wardrobe. She looked up again and noticed a blinking green light, a camera? It had to be because just as soon as she raised herself on the bed someone familiar walked into the room, "Hi, sweetheart, how are you feeling?"
Oh my God.
Winnie was instantly gripped with fear. Her stomach somersaulted. "Spike," she screamed.
"He can't hear you," he said in a singsong manner that frightened her. The man moved slowly, deliberately towards. His eyes disrobing her and his intent was clear. Just the thought made her skin crawl. She kept moving back until she felt her back against the wall and nowhere to run. "Spike," she whimpered.
